On my 23-foot Westerly is a 4-foot tall mirror mounted on the head door that also closes off the forward cabin (say what you will but it came with the boat and actually was nice except if you watched waves though a porthole reflected off the mirror - queezy :-). Anyway we would make a Christmas "tree" with colored ribbon on the mirror. It was nice and festive.

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We can't change the wind - but we can adjust our sails.

Slacker, I love the idea of the Christmas Tree Mast. I might have to try that this year.

We used to have a 18" high artificial tree with miniature decorations. It did however, get a bit beaten about when I forgot to stow it when underway somewhere.

For Xmas lights I hung on it the little novelty Xmas earrings with the battery operated flashing lights. They have an on/off switch and looked very effective in the dimmed cabin at nighttime. The same could be used on the Xmas mast.

We did some decorating outside, with lights, a wreath, and a small tree on the foc's'cle. The tree/wreath are battery powered and cut on automatically at night. That tree looks so tiny up there, it was really meant for the cabin but my son terrorized it one too many times! We'll see if we secured it good enough to stay put when we get underway tomorrow...
Here's a pic at night:

No pics of inside, but we have the stockings on hung on each cabin door and a few select ornaments on temp command hooks...

Last year we decorated a pineapple and with its green palm-like top, it looked like a perfect little Christmas tree. We also decorate the cabin with the lights, etc.. And every year more ;-)

I love it when the Christmas time comes here because there are just a few international boats in this marina and on Christmas eve/day most of the cruising folks will leave their nav light on long into the night.

I remember the first time my wife and I spent christmas in a 35 ft fifth wheel. I found a little tree about 2 ft tall. We set it up on the table with a couple of ornaments and a short string of lights. After that we found a small fiber optic tree. (very colorfull and no mess).

Like many here I was going to go low key this year. But like a lot of my so called plans they seemed to take another direction. I liked the ideas of using the mast as a "Tree" so I set out to decorate using no more stuff than could be packed up in a 1 gallon zip lock bag.

Well much to my surprised my teenage daughter came down to the boat while I was out of town on a survey and "added" to my efforts lol

I was much surprised to pull into the marina after dark to see the only boat in the place with Christmas lights was MINE! She had strung lights along the lifelines. When I stepped below I found she had added to my decorations and there were little things all over the boat. This was her idea and she did it all by herself.

I guess that skinny teenage girl who knows how to drive me nuts and has a sixth sense about when I have a fresh 20 in my wallet is not so bad after all. Bless her heart there is hope lol

We didn't go up the mast for the up and over's- I just tied the lights off at the bow and stern, tied the strands together with a square knots to keep them from unplugging, and used the spare halyard to raise them up and make them taut. Worked well, we hit some wind last weekend (20-25 kts) off Port Ludlow and they stayed put just fine. I figured I could always drop them on deck if I needed to...

...now we have 2-3 inches of ice around the boat, no getting underway this weekend!

I've got a little plastic tree, about 2 foot high that breaks down into pieces. With the lights, tinsel, decorations and the base, it all fits into a box about 18x18x6 for easy stowage. I've had it for years. There is a hole drilled into the dinette table just aft of the mast step where the stump goes in, and its small enough not to be any bother when moving fore/aft.

The decorations, some of them you wouldn't expect on a tree. An engraved stone with viking runes, several small blocks of wood with runes, a gremlin in a santa hat, a small bag of spices. These are all momentos of different times, places n people.

Depends. If we are in the US, i get the smallest tree (2-3) "fresh" tree I can, cause I love the smell. If not in the US I try to stow a small artificial tree. I also put garland on the grab rails (real if in us, fake if not)

Re ornaments: i make homemade ones, augmented with bought ones that end up getting tossed due to storage difficulties.

Re lights, if at a marina, I light up the rails and the rigging, if at anchor I downscale a bit. LEDs look like they may be great (electricity usage-wize) when at anchor.

Obviously, I love all Christmas stuff. I also bake cookies, pies and a fruitcake, while listening to Christmas Carols or watching Christmas DVDs. All of this on a 34' Morgan.

Location: Cowes (Winter), Baltic (Summer) (the boat!); somewhere in the air (me!)

Boat: Cutter-Rigged Moody 54

Posts: 19,743

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talbot

Most Christian festivals were established on dates that were holidays in the previous pagan religion, thus any concern about the religious link of these festivities can be ignored.

Of course if you want to celebrate an aspect of your religion on those dates (regardless of religion) please do so,

Absolutely right. Christmas is just the old solstice festival -- a celebration of the turn of the year, of the turn of the sun back towards light. In Russia and a lot of other places, the Christmas tree, presents, feast, visiting, and other traditions we celebrate on Christmas, are celebrated on New Year's.

How many Christians, who celebrate Christmas, actually go to church or observe any other actually religious aspect of the day? Right. It actually doesn't have too much to do with that, which is fine.

My daughter would not hear of us not having a tree aboard...after all this is our home
We even made the 200 mile crossing the Sea of Cortez from La Paz to Mazatlan with it up and did not loose even one ornament.

Absolutely right. Christmas is just the old solstice festival -- a celebration of the turn of the year, of the turn of the sun back towards light. In Russia and a lot of other places, the Christmas tree, presents, feast, visiting, and other traditions we celebrate on Christmas, are celebrated on New Year's.

How many Christians, who celebrate Christmas, actually go to church or observe any other actually religious aspect of the day? Right. It actually doesn't have too much to do with that, which is fine.

I'm one of those you despise...look out I might get ya...

Christ..mass..Yes you are correct early day christianity did a horrible job picking the festive days they did to represent its festivals...mostly it was to try and persuade/ win over idol worshippers to come over and party with them instead.

Christmas as we know it today has everything to do with Christ ( Christianity ) and absolutely nothing to do with historical idol worshiping going on at the time..there is little if any of that still hanging on in main stream as far as December 25th goes. Resurrection Sunday is the same way ( I hate the term Easter..yes I know where that came from as well )

The Tree is another pagan symbol you will chastise me with as well I can feel it coming.... but for me it is a symbol and reminder only of one tree.. stained with his blood for you and for me and the gift giving is symbolic of the offering from the Magi whom traveled to find him...We now use the word Gay to mean something totally different then what the word originally meant and our dictionaries have been changed to show this...what is any real difference using a tree or a date or an name or anything else to celebrate God, His love ,forgiveness, his mercy or any other attribute from what it origional was used for?

Yes some day I may be held accountable for minimizing and prostituting his dates and symbols..but Christ came to set us free from condemnation to something unattainable for me anyway...The letter of the law.

Sorry you are so jaded about it..I will pray for you my friend...and hope he touches you in a personal way soon.

He must have had a special kindship for the sea , and of boats and fishermen as 6 of his chosen were from its very shores...and his teaching were never far form it and often included it...and i like to think I am in his will by wanting to be close to it as well.

By the way..Merry Christmas ..and I mean that from the bottom of my heart..

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"Go simple, go large!".

Relationships are everything to me...everything else in life is just a tool to enhance them.